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Amy and Eric

Hello and Thank You! We are Amy and Eric.

Dear Birthmother: It takes a village to raise a child & we would love to share our village with your child! Thank you for taking the time to get to know us a little bit. We hope that you’ll get a sense of who we are (or at least as much as is possible in eight pages of words and pictures!) and how much love and support we have to share. We know what bravery, wisdom, and hope you have in your heart and hope that you’ll see how excited and ready we are to provide a loving and supportive home. We are so excited to share our family’s traditions, quirks, lessons learned and most importantly, love with your child!

Here’s the Story: We met in San Franciso in 1999 amidst the dot-com boom. Eric’s friend – and later best man at our wedding – Adam introduced us and we began dating (really were tied at the hip) a short time later. After four fun filled years of dating, we got married and moved to Southern California, where Amy’s parents and brother’s family live.

We love Southern California and all of the great weather and outdoor activities that it provides. We love hiking, biking, and travel. We’ve been lucky enough to travel together to Mexico, Spain, New Zealand, and more recently, the Pacific Northwest and Canada. We also love movies and cozying up together to watch romantic comedies for Date Night (usually with take out Thai or Indian food!).

After our trip to New Zealand in 2007 we decided to start a family. While that path wound up not working out for us, a different path was revealed – adoption!

Meet Amy

About Amy, written by Eric: I know that Amy will be a phenomenal mom. She’s passionate, nurturing, and an amazing teacher and mentor. I can so clearly see her building fantastical forts, heading off on outings in the great outdoors, creating science experiments, and cheering her heart out at games and competitions of all kinds.

Amy is incredible with all our many nieces and nephews. From inventing silly games to calmly and sweetly providing instruction and guidance, I see how much love she will provide as a mom.

Amy never just “sits around.” She’s always up for little “adventures,” which can be as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood to hopping into the car to find a stretch of beach she has never seen before. And at home she’s forever finding a unique book, craft, or activity to spin up and get going.

We also like to play games at home and with the family, and whether it’s Jenga or card games or active games on our Xbox Kinect, Amy always is an excited and engaged participant.

And this is all separate from my knowledge that I’m doubly lucky in that Amy is a healthcare professional and so will forever be an invaluable resource for knowing what to do with scratched knees and “My tummy hurts!” I am so grateful to have Amy in my life & know without any doubt whatsoever that she will an incredible mother!

Amy’s Career: She’s a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist), which is an intensive care nurse who has been trained to administer anesthesia for all types of surgery & medical procedures She is able to use her skills to go on medical missions to help people around the world!

Meet Eric

About Eric, written by Amy: He has already got the safety thing down. Whenever we cook meals together and we are handing each other a knife he exclaims “safety transfer”!

No date will ever be forgotten. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, first dates, anything – Eric remembers where we were for any date you give him. It is no surprise, therefore, that he loves history. Winston Churchill is a favorite (we named our cat after him!).

Eric loves to read. I can see him under the light of a bedside lamp sharing a favorite story or telling tall tales.

He is also wired into all things tech. Whatever our child is into, Eric will be able to share in it or possibly even introduce us to a thing or two!

I love how Eric takes care of me and everyone in his family. Go on 5 million runs to the grocery store to pick up things I forgot for Thanksgiving dinner – no problem! Airport run? He is on it. Best of all, Eric loves unconditionally. When I wanted to try to learn to breakdance at the age of 38, he didn’t even blink! I love that the most about him and it will be the greatest gift to our child. I am so grateful to call Eric my husband. I cannot wait for him to hear himself called “Daddy.” It will melt his heart & be the best day ever. Eric will be the most amazing Dad!

Our Family: We’re so lucky to have a big and supportive network of friends and family all over the country (with a concentration of family close to us in Southern California, which will be super helpful in all kinds of ways!).

Amy has family all over the west coast, with her parents and brother’s family clustered near us in Southern California. We recently spent time with lots of uncles, aunts, grandparents, nephews, and nieces on a trip to Oregon and Washington state.

Eric is from New York, where his mom and sister’s family live, and has lots of family in Florida as well. We’ll occasionally travel “back east” for the holidays and try to visit as often as we can.

Family and holidays and traditions are very important to us so we make it a priority to spend holidays and special occasions with our families.

We’re also lucky to have friends spread out around the country as well! They are an eclectic and diverse group.

Our Animals: Chelsea, our dog, won Amy’s heart immediately (by being a complete spaz). She has the happiest bouncy greeting whenever we come home (even if we’ve just gone outside to get the mail). Chelsea loves to go on hikes with us. Winston, our cat, lures you in with his wide-eyed kitty stare and soft belly. He loves to bat around headphones and shoe strings with his paws but ignores store-bought pet toys. We think he might be the loudest purring cat on record!

Our Home and Thoughts on Parenting

Where We Live: We love our small (we prefer “cozy”) home with a big back yard!

Amy’s parents have helped us a lot to maximize the space that we have. For example, Amy and her Mom designed and then her Dad built a custom couch that tucks snugly into the front room of our house. It looks amazing and includes lots of storage space underneath the cushions. And it’s also “modular” so we can move it around wherever we like. In our backyard we have a detatched garage that was converted into a room. We use it for storage and projects – and it’s also a great play space for kids!

We have a great backyard for playing, relaxing, and parties with lots of grass, a fun fire pit like you might find at a campground, and brick patio that gets lots of sun. We even have a small garden that grows snap peas, lettuce, corn, and tomatoes. It is so fun to watch it grow and harvest it for lunch or dinner! In the future we want to put in a chicken coop and have fresh eggs. All these things we think would allow for learning, wonder, and exploration!

Our Hopes And Dreams For Our Child: Family & friends who can be trusted & relied upon for life. Education – for work, for play, & for life – is deeply important! Education is far more than what happens in the classroom, it is discovery in nature, in people, in books, & in life. Creativity, fun, & laughter! A loving & supportive home where a child can discover his or her own hopes & dreams – & chase them! Safety & security from mental or physical harm. A life filled with wonder, joy, & love! Our small city has lots of great parks and things to see and do, and has great weather and friendly people.

In Closing: Thank you again for letting us show you a little bit about our lives and hopes and dreams with you! We’re so excited to share our lives and love with a child. Please know that we are committed to providing a safe, happy, and creative home. We treasure finding and going after your dreams – whatever they might be – and that will always be most encouraged in our home.